My Emusic subscription has re-spawned, and I’ve got a quite varied collection of things to listen to this month.
‘Deep Listening’ is drone music played on digeridoo and accordian and bits of metal pipes and things, but recorded in a 2million gallon silo that has 45 seconds of echo. And the 3 of ’em are playing these almost static drones that shift and warp in a quite delightful way. If you tried doing it on a computer/synth (and you could – and I think I have at some point. Actually, some of the new Far Black Furlong sounds a little like that) it just wouldn’t sound the same, wouldn’t sound so organic.
‘Al Bowlly’s In Heaven’ is a song by Richard Thompson from ‘Daring Adventures’, which I dug out ’cause Mum wanted a compilation of RT for the car (the old cassette is no good – no player in this car). Only when putting the best of his stuff all on one playlist did I realise just how incredibly sad some of his songs are. There’s this one, ‘Withered and Died’ which is possibly the saddest song ever – or is it the beautiful performance by Linda Thompson that gives it the edge? – and ‘Waltzing’s for dreamers’. RT is incredibly underrated, except by people who have heard him who slightly overrate him I think (too many so-so tracks on each album). Someone needs to put together ‘An Introduction to..’ compilation. Didn’t do Nick Drake any harm, did it?
‘The Indestructible Beat of Soweto – Volume One’ is great. I had second thoughts after I’d downloaded it, do I really want to listen to this at the moment (I go through phases, I love dub and roots reggae but I really don’t want to hear it all the time). Answer: I do want to hear this, it’s bloody great. I think this was one of the releases that got Paul Simon into South African music, or maybe it just came out at roughly the same time.
I think I’ve got a little too much instrumental music this time, I tried to balance it out with Hoodoo Gurus and the new Dears album, but there’s still too much jazz and ambient.
What? Why Bother? 